Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.

Korea 1950-1977

Pioneering in the Land of the Morning Calm

As was true in Japan following World War II, war with its miseries, sufferings, and heartaches was responsible for the introduction of Mormonism to the people of Korea. Because millions of soldiers and civilians died in the Korean conflict and untold damage and destruction ravaged the lives of the Korean people from 1950 to 1953, it is ironic that the message of the restored gospel, a message of peace, found its way into the lives of some Korean people at a time of so much woe.

The people of the Republic of (South) Korea (ROK), an anomaly created by the political ideologies of modern times, grieve for their own people who are now part of a Communist state. Although the Koreans had sought for isolation from the outside world (their country is often called the "Hermit Kingdom"), a sad fact is that the racially homogeneous Koreans, a people who share a common language and heritage, have been controlled by both the Chinese and the Japanese. The period of Japanese occupation lasted from 1910 to 1945 and is remembered as a time of national humiliation. Harsh Japanese army officers ruled with little concern for the antiquity and value of Korean culture. They imposed the Japanese language on Korean students. The bitter feelings generated during the Japanese era have waned somewhat, but they have not disappeared.

The dignified and conservative Korean people have created a unique culture and social system. Although Koreans are related racially to Chinese, Japanese, and other Mongoloid peoples, their culture, even though strongly influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism, is different from any other. Korea is not a replica of China or Japan. At the most basic level, Korean homes, foods, clothing, and language are different from those of China and Japan. The list of differences is long.

The religious history of Korea is also unique. At present, 70 to 80 percent of the people believe in Shamanism, although only about 10 percent list themselves as such. Shamanism, focusing on the power of mediums to contact spirits from the world of the dead, originated in unremembered times. Buddhism claims about one-fourth of the South Korean populace, although estimates vary between 19 and 47 percent. Confucianism, which is more a social and political philosophy than a religion, influences most Koreans, particularly in their personal interactions, family relations, and acts of protocol. Protestants and Roman Catholics constitute 27.1 percent and 6 percent of the populace, respectively-surprisingly large numbers considering that Korea is an Asian country.

Korea's first introduction to Christianity came in 1631, with a book written by a Jesuit missionary to China. About one hundred years later, a group of Korean scholars used that book and others for study and ultimately began practicing its teachings. The first Roman Catholic priest to enter Korea was astonished to find an established Catholic community of more than four thousand members. A number of noble Catholic workers taught their form of Christianity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and some died martyrs' deaths.